Lear Jet Industries Speakers?

A

atrac

Active Member
Does anyone know anything about Lear Jet Speakers? I saw a pair of bookshelf sized ones at a local Thrift Store that looked pretty cool. And the specs printed on the back are rather impressive considering their size:

8 Ohms; 40 Hz–20,000 Hz (*edited!*)

I've just learned that Bill Lear was involved with the invention of the 8-Track tape, but I don't know if he had anything to do with the speakers (they are Made in Japan).

They have a wire running out of them vs. connectors for the speakers, so I'm assuming they went with some kind of component system (probably 8-track!). I couldn't remove the front grills either so I couldn't tell the condition of the foam.

I'm sure they're not going to blow me away with sound quality, but dang, there's something rather cool about speakers with Lear Jet printed on them!

Should I go back for them? $20 for the pair?
 
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Recently there was a topic thread on here regarding Akai SW-30's that had been removed from a Lear Jet that was either being refurbished or scrapped. The Lear Jet branded speakers were likely a standard Japanese model rebadged for the American market and were likely sourced from Coral, Foster, Pioneer, Matsushita or one of the other OEM suppliers at the time. Depending on the manufacturer and the drivers used they could sound anywhere from decent to lousy. I'd offer them $ 10 and see if they'd bite. Fortunatley only a few Japanese manufacturers used foam surrounds back then.

The first 4-track tape cartridge players in the 1960's came from Earl "Madman" Muntz and then Mr. Lear improved upon it by developing the 8 track player and format. Here are the fun details:
http://www.recording-history.org/HTML/8track4.php
 
I'm wondering since there's only a wire coming out of the back (and not even labeled + or -) would I need to re-do it by adding a connector panel?

I do note that the back is screwed on, so luckily I wouldn't be prying them open and ruining the cabinets. ;)

I could go offer them $10, but the guy didn't look too phased by my "$10 a piece!?!?" when he originally told me the price. I've literally seen them there for about six months but didn't get interested until now. So he doesn't seem like he's in a hurry to get rid of them. :(
 
Bill Lear was the man. He invented the car radio, 8-track, jet-way, the private jet (Lear Jet) which like Kleenex, became the generic name for any small corporate jet,
 
OK -- I'll move along. :)

Incidentally, if I find speakers that are "hard wired" like the above, should that constitute an immediate "pass?" Normally I have been (along with speakers that you can't remove the grills).
 
Some excellent speakers were hardwired, so no -- you have to actually look at the speaker. You'd pass on some B&Os, and many excellent older speakers where the owner intalled the driver in a cabinet and just wired up to the EV? Altec? JBL? Stephens? Western Electric? Bozak? and so on. And there's something else that is tugging at my mind.
 
The company had a model that worked in the car and could be pulled and slid into a docking station for home use. The docking station had a pair of speakers. It might those. If so, not much, similar to many of the mini-system speakers of a few years ago.
 
Lear-jet speakers?


Sounds like an idea that could take-off. :scratch2:
Still...in this economic climate a new company could take a nose dive,crash and burn. :tears:
I guess it would depend upon how much one could land them for. :smoke:
 
Reviving an old thread -- found a pair of these at the dump today. Very scuffed up, and not exactly prepossessing looking to begin with, but the speakers are surprisingly heavy, the cabinets have a recessed back (something that I believe Monitor Audio or Mission revived as a way of damping side walls), and there is evidence of careful construction -- there is a bracket to hang them from, not uncommon itself, but there are little rubber bumpers to keep the speaker from marring the wall if they are hung. So I brought them home.
Fired them up on a little Martel receiver I found at the same place and a Kenwood turntable, and they sound surprisingly good. Off axis they sound pretty hollow -- the woofer seems to go fairly far up so dispersion can't be that great in the lower high end, thought the tweeters do contribute to it. I suspect this is an example of synergy -- the few times I hooked the receiver up to modern speakers it sounded very dark, but with age and price appropriate speakers like the Lear Jets, it sounded balanced and punchy. My intention is to finish working on a Garrard AT 60 that also came from the dump and make a nostalgic system of it. (Something makes me suspect I may be reuniting components that were in a system together, but came to the dump over several weeks.)
I wouldn't be at all surprised if it is fun to listen to it, limited frequency range, rumble and mistracking an all -- one of the reasons listening to music was so popular in the 60s was that even fairly low end stuff often sounded enjoyable. Maybe not accurate, but euphonic, especially if you've never heard recordings without such defects.
 
My B & O Beovox 2600's came with a very small (20-22 awg?) wire out the backs...apparently they were originally intended for a compact receiver combo...they do sound sweet, and although have thought about putting terminal on the rear panels, hate to "ruin them."
 
I knew that there would be demands for pictures, so here they are. Don't know enough about Japanese speaker codes to identify the drivers. The bad news is that the woofer surrounds are hard as rock. Time for brake fluid. But it does explain the punchy sound - for whatever reason, stiff suspensions seem to produce vivid sound, even if the low bass is nonexistent.
 

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luxman.jpg learjet1.jpg learjet5.jpg Finally someone else wants to talk about these little guys. I found a pair earlier this year at a habitat for humanity. Noticed the Lear Jet logo on the back and had to have them. I was impressed mainly by the quality of the cabinets. Really nice veneer and easy to get into for upgrades. Mine also had the wire going into the back panel so I cut those at the speaker and added some really nice binding posts to the back of the cabinet. So inside where Sanyo drivers with cloth surrounds that looked mint. A 6.5" woofer and 2" tweeter. I hooked them up to a small amp they sounded pretty nice. No real bass to speak of but great presence, pleasantly mediocre. They at the time had some ratty black speaker fabric that I replaced with a linen kind of like my AR's. I like to think of them like my own little AR minis. So once I fixed them up and made them presentable I pressed them into service at my beach house. They are my bedroom speakers getting pushed by my now vintage Luxman rv-113 and U-turn orbit + turntable along with a 10" polk powered sub. All I can say is that I could not ask anymore of these guys. They alone through the Luxman without the subwoofer sounded adequate and where perfect mood makers. Really nice and mellow. Found myself staring at them enjoying the pleasant sounds. But then I added the sub and now it is a different story. I was then able to turn the bass to them down and the volume up. Now I never want to leave the room. Perfect combo with a powered sub. They have a lot of snare drum snap and mid bass punch for sure. Love them, they have tons of personality. Wish I could find more like them. Not much info is out there on them or the old Sanyo cloth surround drivers that are in them but I could not imagine messing with them now. Well never say never. Included some pics of them in there surroundings.
 

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Well, I tried to loosen up the suspensions with brake fluid, and no doubt, it would have worked, but I was impatient and pressed on the surround to see how pliant it had become. It hadn't at all, and even a little poke went right through. So I removed the doped cloth surrounds and replaced them with generic foam. While I was in there, I bypassed the tiny electrolytic caps with some old film caps of the same (2 mfd) value.
Used in the context of a contemporaneous system (Martel receiver and Garrard AT 60), they sound surprisingly good. I have no doubt that when I actually compare them with other speakers they will be seen to be limited in frequency and rather uneven in the range they do cover, but I have no doubt that a buyer of the time would have found them very satisfactory. They give a good impression of bass and treble extension even if not actually providing it (not of course, that the other components were likely to be doing much better), and they have lively presence and sound fairly balanced. No opinion yet on audiophile qualities - imaging, depth, air, and so on - but I question whether the average user frets too much about such stuff.
 
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